Women's Bridge Resources Center provides Safe Haven

Whatever troubled storms drove them into this safe haven with the lace curtains and the fireplace, women are sure to find the shelter they’re seeking.

Not necessarily shelter in the literal sense, but shelter in the form of a job search, legal or financial advice, housing assistance, parenting advice — or just a shoulder to lean on when life’s sudden changes seem overwhelming.

If the Women’s Bridge Resource Center in East Norriton has a niche of its own, it’s that women can expect to find someone here that will listen to them, said Fran Snyder, who founded the agency five and a half years ago and now runs it with the help of her husband Rich Snyder.

“Our niche covers almost every gamut,” Snyder said. “We take the time to understand what their problems are and what their needs are. It’s not just, ‘fill out this form and your time’s up.’ We allow an hour for every woman’s first appointment. We’re confidential, but we don’t talk down to them. I think some people in society have a tendency to look at those who’ve been displaced or are struggling — things they themselves haven’t experienced yet — and wonder why they don’t just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, as it were, and go find a job or find an apartment.”

Much of the time learning to become self-sufficient requires the understanding and support of others, Snyder said.

“You need to know where to look and you need people helping you. It’s not as easy as some people think it should be.”

Women who find their way here often confide in Snyder that they’ve sought help with other organizations and not a lot was forthcoming.

“We do deal with some domestic violence, although when they come to us I usually suggest they go to The Women’s Center, and if they’re actually looking for shelter I would probably refer them to Laurel House, who don’t always have the room either. Those two places work very closely together to house women who are out of domestic violent situations.”

Every new client heads home with a wealth of information about all the resources available to help them bridge the turbulent waters to where they need to be for a better life.

“We give them concrete ideas to take away with them and they’re required to stay in touch with us,” said Snyder, a former special education teacher at Pottsgrove High School.

Women’s Bridge Resource Center was originally just a working title, but it “stuck” for a reason, said Snyder, who can see her younger self in the faces of her clients.

“I was probably in a similar situation earlier on in my life and there weren’t a lot of resources for me, and I wanted there to be more,” she recalled. “I thought the only way to do that was to start this organization. I wanted people on the board that shared the same values about helping people without judging them because they may have less than you have.”

Whatever a client’s crisis may be, she’s entitled to nothing less than a no-nonsense, honest reckoning from the WBRC staff, Snyder said.

“One thing I tell clients is they will always hear the truth from us. They might not like the truth, but we will always tell them the truth. When they leave here we call it bridging out, after they’ve met their goals, and then we keep in touch with them for six months. After that we say ‘it’s time for you to fly on your own,’ but they can always come back as a volunteer.”

The little Cape Cod that sits quaintly on the grounds of Norriton Presbyterian Church on North Trooper Road is the center’s third location.

Snyder recently gave up her office so that the home could accommodate a third client as a tenant, but there’s only room left to dream at this point.

“Our new initiative is to find additional housing that we can house women the same way we house them here,” she said. “It would be transitional housing, where they could live in the house for at least six months, where other shelters are only 30 days — not enough time. After six months we would re-evaluate where they are. We’re looking into hotels and motels, to see if they could rent us rooms. It’s going to take funding.”

If there’s one thing the woman who started her organization with a noble mission, good intentions and $1,800 knows, the money is likely to come from some unexpected places.

“What frustrates me the most is that I can’t do all that I want to do for the women,” Snyder said. “I don’t have a bottomless pit of money. We have to depend on other agencies, churches and grants for funding. We do a lot, but I always think we could do more. We run on a shoestring budget. Since we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency, all financial donations to us are tax exempt, and a tax exemption letter of acknowledgment will be sent if we have the person’s name and address,” she added

About 25 volunteers cover a gamut of skills, from fundraising to clerical work to helping organize the monthly support group meetings.

The delicate work of rebuilding lives can be traced back to Snyder’s days running the food pantry at St. James Episcopal Church in Evansburg. She noticed more and more single women coming in along with the families and realized their needs far transcended free physical nourishment,

“I saw the difficulty in the lives of these people,” she recalled. “I started Women’s Bridge because when we were doing the food pantry we found there was such a bigger need beyond food and clothing. Anybody can hand out a bag of food. Not everybody can help with resources and things like that.”

With the folks at St. James not being on board with Snyder’s plans, she “told them they’d need to find somebody else to run the food bank because I needed to do this. It was that important to me.”

The separation was exactly what she needed to fire up the engine of the Women’s Bridge mission of helping women in crisis or transition master the necessary tools to “bridge out” into society.

“I rounded up nine other people who I felt had the same value system about women and families and we brainstormed how we wanted to do this,” Snyder recalled.

The group originally worked out of the Valley Forge Business Center, and soon relocated to a larger space in Eagleville.

“It was always my goal to have a house so that we could house some of our women, and to have that house within five years, and we did that,” Snyder said.

Women’s Bridge Resource Center opened its doors on the Norriton Presbyterian Church property in June 2012.

“The church, myself and Rich have had a relationship for about 10 years, because when we ran the food bank at St. James we had other churches donating food to us, and Norriton Presbyterian was one of them,” Snyder recalled. “The church used to have their offices here but decided they’d like to get some revenue from the house and approached us about renting.”

All clients are referred to Women’s Bridge through social service agencies, churches, synagogues and school districts.

All too frequently, women come to Women’s Bridge feeling beaten down by the simplest responsibilities of life, or they may underestimate which areas of their lives need help.

“If a new client thinks all she needs is financial assistance, that’s not all she needs … because if she needs that it’s because she isn’t budgeting correctly, or needs a job,” Snyder said. “The one thing we want to avoid is having women come in and expect that all we’re going to do is write a check.”

Clients range in age from early 30s to mid 70s, and come from Montgomery, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties Snyder said.

When asked which aspect of helping women she found the most fulfilling, Snyder’s eyes sparkled as she glanced at the handful of ‘thank you’ cards from clients that lined the mantle in the living room.

“I think the cards and notes we get are thanking us for the emotional support more than anything,” she said. “Everyone has a different definition of success. For some, success is getting a house or a job. And for some of our women, getting out of bed in the morning is a success.”